West Virginia sheriff slain while eating lunch in car

A West Virginia sheriff was shot outside a county courthouse while eating his lunch in his car. The suspect was later found and captured following a shootout with police.

By Lee Mueller, Reuters

WILLIAMSON, W.Va. - A drug-fighting West Virginia sheriff was shot to death as he ate lunch in his car on Wednesday and the suspected gunman was wounded and captured after a chase, police said.

Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum was at a parking lot in the city of Williamson when a man ran up and shot him, then fled in his own vehicle, Williamson Police Chief Dave Rockel said at a news conference.

Authorities identified the suspect as Tennis Melvin Maynard, 37, of Ragland, West Virginia.

Maynard fled south on U.S. Route 52 about 8 miles when his vehicle crashed into a bridge, said Captain Dave Nelson of the West Virginia State Police.

After the crash, Maynard got out of his vehicle, raised his weapon and was shot by a Mingo County sheriff's deputy, Nelson said.

Police officials did not say how seriously Maynard was injured. He was taken to a hospital in Logan, West Virginia, and then flown by helicopter to another hospital in Huntington, West Virginia, police said.

Williamson Daily News via AP

Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum.

The shooting followed other recent attacks on law enforcement officials in the United States, including the killings of two prosecutors in Texas and the Colorado prisons chief.

Williamson is a coal-mining town of about 3,000 people in southwestern West Virginia.

Crum, a former magistrate, took office as sheriff at the beginning of the year. He had launched a campaign called "Zero Tolerance" to clamp down on local drug trafficking, which centers on illegal prescription drugs.